Category: Calendar Items Page 5 of 22

Towel Day ’23: Scattered Thoughts about Reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy

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On May 25, 2023

In A-B, Authors, Calendar Items, Douglas Adams, Fiction, News/Misc., Science Fiction, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


I’ve been trying for a few years now to come up with a tribute to Adams. This isn’t quite what I had in mind, but it’s a start. In my mind, this is a work in progress, but I’m posting it anyway. Next year’s version will be better—or at least more complete.

Some time in 7th or 8th grade (I believe), I was at a friend’s house and his brother let us try his copy of the text-based Hitchhiker’s Guide game, and we were no good at it at all. Really, it was embarrassing. However, his brother had a copy of the first novel, and we all figured that the novel held the keys we needed for success with the game (alas, it did not help us one whit). My friends all decided that I’d be the one to read the book and come back in a few days as an expert.

I fell in love with the book almost instantly and I quickly forgot about the game. Adams’ irreverent style rocked my world—could people actually get away with saying some of these things? His skewed take on the world, his style, his humor…and a depressed robot, too! It was truly love at first read. As I recall, I started re-reading it as soon as I finished it—the only time in my life I’ve done that sort of thing.

It was one of those experiences that, looking back, I can say shaped my reading and thinking for the rest of my life (make of that what you will). Were my life the subject of a Doctor Who or Legends of Tomorrow episode, it’d be one of those immutable fixed points. I got my hands on the next three books as quickly as I could (the idea of a four-volume trilogy was one of the funniest ideas I’d encountered up to that point), and devoured them. I do know that I didn’t understand all of the humor, several of the references shot past me at the speed of light, and I couldn’t appreciate everything that was being satirized. But what I did understand I thought was brilliant. Not only did I find it funny, the series taught me about comedy—how to construct a joke, how to twist it in ways a reader wouldn’t always expect, and when not to twist but to go for the obviously funny idea. The trilogy also helped me to learn to see the absurdity in life.

I read the books (particularly the first) so many times that I can quote significant portions of them, and frequently do so without noticing that I’m doing that. I have (at this time) two literary-inspired tattoos, one of which is the planet logo* featured on the original US covers. In essence, I’m saying that Adams and the series that made him famous have had an outsized influence on my life and are probably my biggest enduring fandom. If carrying around a (massively useful) piece of cloth for a day in some small way honors his memory? Sure, I’m in.

So, Happy Towel Day You Hoopy Froods.

* I didn’t know it at the time, but Adams didn’t like that guy. Whoops.

Towel Day ’23: Do You Know Where Your Towel Is?

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On May 25, 2023

In A-B, Authors, Calendar Items, Douglas Adams, Fiction, News/Misc., Science Fiction, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(updated and revised this 5/25/23)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

Towel Day, for the few who don’t know, is the annual celebration of Douglas Adams’ life and work. It was first held two weeks after his death, fans were to carry a towel with them for the day to use as a talking point to encourage those who have never read HHGTTG to do so, or to just converse with someone about Adams. Adams is one of that handful of authors that I can’t imagine I’d be the same without having encountered/read/re-read/re-re-re-re-read, and so I do my best to pay a little tribute to him each year, even if it’s just carrying around a towel.

In commemoration of this date, here’s most of what I’ve written about Adams. I’ve struggled to come up with new material to share for Towel Day over the years, mostly sticking with updating and revising existing posts. But I do have a couple of new things coming today. But let’s start with the old material. A few years back, I did a re-read of all of Adams’ (completed) fiction. For reasons beyond my ken (or recollection), I didn’t get around to blogging about the Dirk Gently books, but I did do the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy:
bullet The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
bullet The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
bullet Life, The Universe and Everything
bullet So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish
bullet Mostly Harmless
bullet I had a thing or two to say about the 40th Anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
bullet I took a look at the 42nd Anniversary Illustrated Edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Also, I should mention the one book Adams/Hitchhiker’s aficionado needs to read is Don’t Panic by Neil Gaiman, David K. Dickson and MJ Simpson. If you’re more in the mood for a podcast, I’d suggest The Waterstones Podcast How We Made: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—I’ve listened to several podcast episodes about this book, and generally roll my eyes at them. But this is just fantastic. Were it available, I’d listen to a Peter Jackson-length version of the episode.

I’ve only been able to get one of my sons into Adams, he’s the taller, thinner one in the picture from a few years ago.
(although I did get he and his younger siblings to use their towels to make themselves safe from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal a few years earlier:)

You really need to check out this comic from Sheldon Comics—part of the Anatomy of Authors series: The Anatomy of Douglas Adams.

Lit in a Nutshell gives this quick explanation of The Hitchiiker’s Guide:

TowelDay.org is the best collection of resources on the day. One of my favorite posts there is this pretty cool video, shot on the ISS by astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Even better—here’s an appearance by Douglas Adams himself from the old Letterman show—I’m so glad someone preserved this:

Love the anecdote (Also, I want this tie.)

April 2023 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

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On May 5, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

Okay, I’m a little late with this, but let’s look at my April. I read 27 titles (2 down from March, 4 up from last April), with an equivalent of 6,792+ pages or the equivalent (23 pages up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.59 stars (.17 down from last month). Largely, I’ve felt behind the whole month and didn’t get as much written as I’d planned on or expected to—I’ve kept up on the reading part of book blogging, but the whole blogging part has taken a hit. I’ll get back on top, I trust, but it’s bugging me a bit. Still—I can’t complain with the reading (quantity or quality).

So, here’s what happened here in April.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Vanished Backpacking Through Bedlam All Systems Red
3 Stars 3.5 Stars 3 Stars
The Book That No One Wanted To Read All Our Wrong Todays Hard Rain
4 1/2 Stars 5 Stars 4 Stars
On the Apostolic Preaching The Widower's Two-Step The Raven Thief
5 Stars 3.5 Stars 3 Stars
Self Help How to Examine a Wolverine Ozark Dogs
3 Stars 3 Stars 5 Stars
Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation Bait Teen Titans: Robin
2 Stars 3 Stars 3 Stars
The Nicene Creed: An Introduction The Deal Goes Down The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
4 1/2 Stars 3.5 Stars 4 Stars
Swamp Story Sacred The Stench of Honolulu
4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars
Farmhouse God Never Changes Kneading Journalism
3.5 Stars 3 Stars Still deciding
Morning Star Chain Gang All Stars This Book Will Get You to Sleep!
5 Stars 4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars

Still Reading

The Existence and Attributes of God A Geerhardus Vos Anthology Church History in Plain Language
Non-Toxic Masculinity

Ratings

5 Stars 4 2 1/2 Stars 0
4 1/2 Stars 3 2 Stars 2
4 Stars 3 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 5 1 Star 0
3 Stars 10
Average = 3.59

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
1st of the
Month		 4 44 43 145
Added 3 6 13 0
Read/
Listened		 4 5 2 1
Current Total 3 45 54 144

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 24
Self-/Independent Published: 4

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 4 (15%) 11 (11%)
Fantasy 0 (0%) 9 (9%)
General Fiction/ Literature 2 (7%) 7 (7%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 9 (33%) 31 (30%)
Non-Fiction 2 (7%) 7 (7%)
Science Fiction 5 (19%) 10 (10%)
Theology/ Christian Living 2 (7%) 11 (11%)
Urban Fantasy 3 (11%) 12 (12%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) 0 (0%) 4 (4%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how was your April?

April Calendar

First Quarter Check-In: 2023 Plans and Challenges

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On April 4, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

The amount of dread I’m feeling around starting this post is…okay, I’m not sure how to end this sentence. I’m dreading this. I’m pretty sure I’m not in good shape here.

2023 Plans and Challenges
My plans this year focused on the two series that I’ve started–Literary Locals and Grandpappy’s Corner–both of which are doing okay (sure, there’s the Classic Spenser series that I meant to get back to–I still have time). Then there’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own.” How am I doing on that?

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
Current Total 4 44 54 142

Kind of So-so

Let’s see how I’m doing with the rest of my plans and move on to the Reading Challenges…
2023 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge
Goodreads Challenge

12 Books
This year’s selections are still looking good–I’m a little behind on the reading, and more behind on the writing. Still, I think I’m doing okay on this.
12 Books Challenge

2023 While I was Reading
While I Was Reading
I could be doing a little better on this—as usual, I’m not really planning the books for this challenge. When October hits, if I haven’t read everything on the list, I’ll get serious about hunting.

  1. A book with a protagonist over 40.:
  2. A book considered a classic.:
  3. A graphic novel.:
  4. A book that has been banned or challenged.:
  5. A book set in a place on your bucket list.:
  6. A book published before you were born.:
  7. A book related to a goal you have for 2023.:
  8. A book by an author of color.:
  9. A book with a clever title.:
  10. A book by a famous author you’ve never read:
  11. A non-fiction book about a topic you love.:
  12. A novella: Bad Memory by Jim Cliff

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge
I’m on-target for this one (as much as I can be), and have even got a couple of the Stretch Goals accomplished.
January – End to end temptation I give you permission to read the most recent book you have got on top of your TBR. For many this is one we only get to read eventually but for now I want you to pick up the newest book in Mount TBR and read it. Can you remember the last time you did that? It’s a good habit to get into and January is all about starting good habits: The Perception of Dolls by Anthony Croix, Edited by Russell Day
Stretch Goal – Read the oldest book in Mount TBR it has waited long enough: Bartleby and James: Edwardian Steampunk Chronicle by Michael Coorlim
February – Short steps For the shortest month of the year I want you to read 28 short stories. This can be a TBR collection, anthology or even backlog of magazines that you have. Life is fast but use this challenge to appreciate the skill of the short story writer. Play your skills right you may get more than one book read this way. eh…I get partial credit for this, Noirville contained every short story I had unread, but it’s only fifteen stories. I did read extra novellas for the Stretch Goal, though. So I’m calling this okay?
Stretch Goal – Read four novellas one for each week of the month. Bad Memory by Jim Cliff, Anna and the Vampire Prince by Jeanne C. Stein, and Broken by Don Winslow (which is six novellas).
March – Fresh Starts This time for the beginning of spring you need to start a series you have never read before. Release this work from Mount TBR! Justice Calling by Annie Bellet

Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge;
Beat the Backlist Reading Challengee
I’ve got 2 of the 24 categories taken care of. So, I guess I’m behind–but I do have many of the rest picked out. I just need to set some time aside to knock those out.

  • five word title (only 5 words, count ’em up!)
  • won an award (the book won an award. any award!)
  • meant to read it last year (a book you planned to get to in 2022 and didn’t) The Night Watch by Neil Lancaster
  • giving an author a second chance (an author (or specific book) you previously didn’t jive with )
  • an author writing under a pseudonym (the author(s) is not writing under their real name)
  • 2022 debut novel (an author’s first book that released in 2022)
  • standalone (the book has no prequels/sequels)
  • bought and forgot it (a book you bought (or borrowed) and forgot about it)
  • plants on the cover (any kind of plant on the cover is fair game)
  • first in a trilogy (the book is the first of three)
  • name in the title (the title has a character name in it)
  • set on a continent you don’t live on (the story is set on a continent (or heavily inspired by a place on a continent) you do NOT live on)
  • it’s a trope! (your favorite) (pick your favorite trope and read a book featuring it)
  • less than 170 pages (make sure it’s a short one!) – Bartleby and James: Edwardian Steampunk Chronicle by Michael Coorlim
  • released at least 23 years ago (that’s right, we’re taking it back to the 90’s (release dates in 1999 or before))
  • protagonist name starts with “M” (the main character has a name beginning with “M”)
  • graphic novel outside your fave genre (find a graphic novel that isn’t in one of your favorite genres)
  • recommended by a bookseller (ask your local bookseller for a recommendation! if you don’t have a local store, there are plenty with social media accounts to reach out to)
  • letter “z” in the title (the letter “z” appears somewhere in the title)
  • all about music or the arts (the story revolves around music or the arts in some way)
  • protagonist has a pet (any pet will do)
  • more than 450 pages (grab a tome and get reading!)
  • your favorite genre (a book that falls in your favorite genre)
  • main cover color is your least favorite color (find a book prominently featuring your least favorite color on the cover)

20 Books of Summer
I’ve got about half of my list for this drafted, but I’ll save the details until later. Besides, knowing me, I’ll go through four more drafts anyway.

Basically, I’ve got my work cut out for me here.
(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)

March 2023 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

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On April 3, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I read 29 titles (3 up/down from last month, 7 up from March), with 6,769+ pages or the equivalent—I don’t have page numbers on a couple of them (more than 200 pages up from last month)—and gave them an average of 3.76 stars (.04 up/down from last month). Those numbers do include 4 kids books, which helps the title count, but doesn’t do much for the page count. I need to start counting those separately as I’m just getting started with those, and the numbers should be climbing.

As I expected, attending the Nampa Library’s Indie Book Festival and then a signing the next week didn’t do my Mt. TBR any favors. I’m honestly not sure when I last had this kind of backlog of physical books to get through. I don’t regret it…yet. But those numbers are ugly.

Somehow, I keep getting further and further behind on my writing—while I never do as much as I want to, I’m getting worse at keeping up with my plans (and distracting myself to try new things). Still, I got a few great Q&As posted, a couple of other posts that I’m particularly pleased with, and read/listened to some great books! I’m putting March down as a modest win.

So, here’s what happened here in March.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

The Bandit Queens Good Dog, Bad Cop Darkness, Take My Hand
4 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers Justice Calling The Wonky Donkey
4 1/2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
The Devotion of Suspect X Semicolon Mrs. Covington's
3 Stars 3.5 Stars 4 Stars
The Dead Will Tell Profiles in Ignorance Miss Percy's Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons)
3 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
The Green Ember Death at Paradise Palms George the Bannana
3 Stars 3.5 Stars 3 Stars
Deadly Ever After Flood and Fury Fearless
3.5 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars
Golden Son Please Return to the Lands of Luxury Billy in Space
5 Stars 3.5 Stars Still deciding
Lulu and the Missing Tooth Fairy Trouble With Truffles 5 Puritan Women
Still deciding Still deciding 3.5 Stars
Red Stripes VS Miles the Mutant Mouse Adult Assembly Required You Took the Last Bus Home
3 Stars 5 Stars 4 1/2 Stars
Tower of Babel Space: 1969
Still deciding 2 1/2 Stars

Still Reading

The Existence and Attributes of God A Geerhardus Vos Anthology Church History in Plain Language
Backpacking Through Bedlam Vanished

Ratings

5 Stars 4 2 1/2 Stars 1
4 1/2 Stars 2 2 Stars 0
4 Stars 8 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 7 1 Star 0
3 Stars 7
Average = 3.76

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
1st of the
Month		 5 44 43 145
Added 1 5 19 0
Read/
Listened		 1 5 8 3
Current Total 4 44 54 142

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 16
Self-/Independent Published: 13

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 5 (17%) 7 (9%)
Fantasy 3 (10%) 9 (12%)
General Fiction/ Literature 1 (3%) 5 (7%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 9 (31%) 22 (29%)
Non-Fiction 3 (10%) 5 (7%)
Science Fiction 4 (14%) 5 (7%)
Theology/ Christian Living 1 (3%) 9 (12%)
Urban Fantasy 2 (7%) 9 (12%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western/etc.) 1 (3%) 4 (5%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (3rd, 11th, 18th, and 25th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how was your March?

March Calendar

February 2023 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

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On March 2, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

In February, I finished 26 titles (6 up from last month, 4 up from last February), with 6,588 pages or the equivalent (500 up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.8 stars (0.1 up from last month). Sure, 2 were Children’s Books, and a few were 150 pg. and under–so the number of titles is deceptive. Still, it was a good month on that front.

Mt. TBR moved in the right direction in a noticeable way, so I’m happy with that. And how often do I get to say something like that?

You’ll notice that I don’t have an IndieBound sticker on the side anymore and my posts don’t have the buttons for it anymore–I’ve moved over to Bookshop.org (IndieBound moved me over there, actually). I see some interesting things I can do there in the future, stay tuned.

I didn’t get as much written as I wanted to, but when don’t I say that? I did get a good number of Q&As up, and started a new series (Grandpappy’s Corner). So what (little) I produced, I’m very happy with.

Basically, it was a good month around here. Here’s the breakdown:
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Bad Memory Hunting Fiends for the Ill-Equipped The Silk Empress
3 Stars 3 Stars 3.5 Stars
Underground The Adventure Begins! Magpie Murders
4 Stars 3 Stars 5 Stars
Scratching the Flint The Hero Interviews The Shadow of Christ in the Book of Lamentations
4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun A Man Named Doll The Foundling, the Heist, and the Volcano
3 Stars 3.5 Stars 4 Stars
Vampire Weekend Anna and the Vampire Prince Saint Patrick the Forgiver
4 Stars 3 Stars 5 Stars
Patrick of Ireland Red Rising Haven
3.5 Stars 5 Stars 3 Stars
Foundations Pocket Apocalypse Noirville
3.5 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars
Selected Sermons What is Love? The Freedom of a Christian: A New Translation
4 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
This is the Word of the Lord Broken
3 Stars 5 Stars

Still Reading

The Existence and Attributes of God A Geerhardus Vos Anthology The Bandit Queens
Good Dog, Bad Cop

Ratings

5 Stars 4 2 1/2 Stars 0
4 1/2 Stars 0 2 Stars 0
4 Stars 10 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 4 1 Star 0
3 Stars 8
Average = 3.77

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
1st of the
Month		 5 45 46 145
Added 2 3 7 2
Read/
Listened		 2 4 10 2
Current Total 5 44 43 145

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 11
Self-/Independent Published: 15

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 2 (8%) 2 (4%)
Fantasy 4 (15%) 6 (13%)
General Fiction/ Literature 1 (4%) 4 (9%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 7 (27%) 13 (28%)
Non-Fiction 1 (4%) 2 (4%)
Science Fiction 1 (4%) 1 (2%)
Theology/ Christian Living 5 (19%) 8 (17%)
Urban Fantasy 4 (15%) 4 (21%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) 1 (4%) 7 (15%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

February Calendar

January 2023 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

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On February 1, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I finished 20 titles with 6,087 pages or the equivalent and gave them an average of 3.7 stars. Sure, that’s a low number of titles for me, but I read a lot of a couple of the others that I haven’t finished. I’m calling it a good month (with one exception)—quality over quantity for sure.

Between the 2022 in Review material and the Literary Locals series being in full swing, this was a pretty busy month around here. That makes me feel pretty good—although I did run out of gas toward the end of the month—and my non-blog life took up more time than I’m used to. If I could keep up my pace (or something close to it) from the first of the month, I’d be content.

So there’s my evaluation of the month, here’s what happened here in January.

Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Harvested Triptych Pieces of Eight
3.5 Stars 2 1/2 Stars 3.5 Stars
Bartleby and James: Edwardian Steampunk Chronicle Destructive Reasoning The Night Watch
3 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
Risen Blackwater Falls A Drink Before the War
5 Stars 4 1/2 Stars 4 Stars
Lost in the Moment and Found The Sexual Reformation I Have a Confession
4 1/2 Stars 3.5 Stars 4 Stars
Ms. Demeanor The Perception Of Dolls Half-Off Ragnarok
3 Stars 5 Stars 4 Stars
Really Good, Actually The Wizard’s Butler The Nature and Work of The Holy Spirit
3 Stars 3 Stars 3.5 Stars
On the Savage Side How to Astronaut
4 Stars 3 Stars

Still Reading

The Existence and Attributes of God A Geerhardus Vos Anthology The Hero Interviews

Ratings

5 Stars 2 2 1/2 Stars 1
4 1/2 Stars 2 2 Stars 0
4 Stars 5 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 4 1 Star 0
3 Stars 6
Average = 3.67

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2022		 5 45 42 143
1st of the
Month		 5 45 42 143
Added 6 3 9 2
Read/
Listened		 6 3 5 0
Current Total 5 45 46 145

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 11
Self-/Independent Published: 9

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Fantasy 2 (10%) 2 (10%)
General Fiction/ Literature 3 (15%) 3 (15%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 6 (30%) 6 (30%)
Non-Fiction 1 (5%) 1 (5%)
Science Fiction 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Theology/ Christian Living 3 (15%) 3 (15%)
Urban Fantasy 3 (15%) 3 (15%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) 2 (10%) 2 (10%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

January Calendar

2023 Plans and Challenges

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On January 10, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

Finally it’s time to stop looking at 2022 (as fun as that’s been) and to start focusing on 2023.
2023 Plans and CHallenges
Typically, I’m reticent to get into calling my shots, as it were, too much anymore—there’s a project from 2020 still hanging over my head to point out the problems with me doing that. I’m sure there are older abandoned (or “paused”) projects, too —I just don’t want to go spelunking through the archives to find more personal failures (minor, to be sure, but technically failures).

I do have things I want to accomplish here over the next 12 months for a variety of reasons—and listing them like this helped last year (although, you’ll see a lot of echoes here from that post. But most of those echoes are of a “continue doing this” nature). So, here’s what I’m going to shoot for around here in the next 12 months.
bullet Continue that Literary Locals Project!
bullet Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own (a perennial project, but I made some strides last year)—at least two of the Book Challenges this year should be a fun way to help.
bullet I’m going to finish my Classic Spenser series and maybe find another Classic to do a project read-through. We’ll see about that. (This is a repeat from last year, but it’s nagging at me)
bullet I’m going to continue to be picky in the Book Tours I participate in. I still like Tours, they expose me to things I wouldn’t normally read—and I’m going to keep doing them. But if I’m picky, it helps me focus on other things.
bullet Similarly, I’m doing fewer Book Challenges. I like the ones I’ve picked out—but they’re concrete things, no more of these “Read as Many of X as You Can” challenges. They don’t move the needle one bit for me as far as picking books—I read as many as I’m going to anyway, just with a count. But Challenges with specific targets can be fun. I’ll talk about those in a minute.
bullet Try to interview more authors (maybe others, too?), and get better at that, too. The Literary Locals series is helping with that.
bullet I have one other new feature that I’ll be debuting soon(ish). I’m excited about it, but need a couple of more things to happen before I tell you anything.

2022 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge
Goodreads Challenge
My oldest son taunted me into upping my annual goal to 250 this year. I’ve topped that the last 7 years, so I feel pretty good about meeting that. I’d kept my goal lower because 200 seemed realistic—and anything above it was just gravy. Ultimately, I really don’t care if I hit it—or beat it.

Well, okay, I don’t care that much.

12 Books
I did this one last year, and it really expanded my reading. This year looks like it’ll do the same. There are 2 books I’d had on my list of “should probably read” and 1 book that I’d never heard of before, but instantly wanted to read as soon as it was recommended. The rest? I’m looking forward to reading them, but I’m relatively certain I wouldn’t have picked on my own. BTW, I could use one more recommendation to finalize this list.
12 Books Challenge

2022 While I was Reading
While I Was Reading
I’ve done this one for the last few years—and Ramona’s done a great job of stretching me. And will continue to do so—this year’s categories look like a lot of fun, too.

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge
I really appreciate the way this one is put together, and it’s pretty easy—just 1 book a month and my TBR should go down by at least 12. This was pretty helpful last year, and I expect the same this year. I’ve actually already knocked off the January stretch goal, and should have the actual goal done next week.

Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge;
Beat the Backlist Reading Challengee
I’ll be pairing this one with my Goodreads Want-To-Read goal and the TBR Reduction challenge as much as I can. It’s really just a way to trick myself into doing better at both of those. I’ve seen a few people do this lately, and it seemed like a good idea. Still, I’m not a glutton for punishment—I’m only going for the 24-prompt version.

20 Books of Summer
I’ll also undoubtedly do the 20 Books of Summer Challenge…that’s been pretty fun. And I can easily combine it with 2 or 3 of the above challenges, to be super-productive.

That’s everything I have planned, I can’t wait to see what unplanned things happen around here. Hope you’re around to join in the fun!


(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)

Fourth Quarter Check-In/Wrap-Up: 2022 Plans and Challenges

By

On January 2, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

I don’t know if anyone actually reads these (or cares), but I enjoy putting them together—if only so I can think about what I’ve read and plan for the upcoming quarter/year/etc.

I didn’t have many concrete plans for 2022, but one that I mentioned was “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own (a perennial project, but I made some strides last year).” How am I doing on that?

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of 2021 9 45 42 144
End of 2022 5 43 37 143

That’s…um, not bad. I wanted better and I thought I was making a concerted effort on that for the year. It’s a start. Also, I did read 88% of the books I was given or purchased in 2022—that’s the sole encouraging thing I can take away from that chart. For the sake of my fragile ego, I’d also point out that the TBR work on the paper books would look a lot more impressive if I hadn’t been given 7 books in December with no time to read any of them. (don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful…but ouch)
Not Bad

How’d I do with the rest of my plans and move on to the Reading Challenges…
2022 Book Challenges

12 Books
I had a lot of fun with this one—and definitely found a series (maybe two) to read and a couple of authors to read more of. I’ll be sharing my 2023 Challenge soon.
12 Books Challenge Quarter 4

2022 While I was Reading
While I Was Reading
I posted this list last week, but I’ll repeat it here because I did that for the first 3 quarters.

  1. A book with a question in the title: Have I Told You This Already?: Stories I Don’t Want to Forget to Remember by Lauren Graham
  2. A book of non-violent true crime: Blessed Are the Bank Robbers: The True Adventures of an Evangelical Outlaw by Chas Smith
  3. A book with a cover you don’t like: Composite Creatures by Caroline Hardaker
  4. A historical fiction novel not set in Europe: A Snake in the Raspberry Patch by Joanne Jackson
  5. A book with a character’s name in the title: With Grimm Resolve by Jefferey H. Haskell
  6. A book featuring paranormal activity (fiction or non): (that feels like half of what I read) Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron
  7. A book with a number in the title: Citizen K-9 by David Rosenfelt
  8. A food related memoir: Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson with Veronica Chambers
  9. A book that’s won an award: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (Winner of The Booker Prize, 2011)
  10. A middle grade novel: How to Save a Superhero by Ruth Freeman
  11. A book by an author who shares your zodiac sign: Radio Radio by Ian Shane
  12. A book that’s a combination of genres: Bloodlines by Peter Hartog

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge
I was almost successful with this one, I didn’t read one month’s category—but I did hit two Stretch Goals (including the Stretch Goal for the month I didn’t/couldn’t read). So that’s 14 off the pile. Not as good as I’d hoped, but better than I expected. The 2023 version looks fun, too.
January – New Beginnings I give you permission to read the most recent book you got on top of your TBR.: Bloodlines by Peter Hartog
Stretch Goal – Read the oldest book in Mount TBR it has waited long enough: Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron
February – Valentine’s Day Gift
Is there that book by an author you love you picked up and still haven’t read because you do not deserve it just yet? Other items got in the way? You have for this challenge to pick that book up and read it: Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
March – Fresh blooms
For the beginning of Spring I want you to open a book in the TBR pile by an author you’ve never read before: The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True by Sean Gibson
April – New Openings
April is derived from the Latin for ‘to open’ In Mount TBR there may be the first book of a series. Your challenge is to read: Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. Parker
May – Randommmmm
You MAY pick one random book out of Mount TBR and you must read it: Conjured Defense by J.C. Jackson
June – The Longest Day
Find the longest book in Mount TBR and you must read it: The Border by Don Winslow
July – You Came, You Read and You Conquered
In your TBR there may have been a book you know will be a challenging read. Show it who is the Emperor and read that book until it screams for your mercy and then finish it! AMORALMAN by Derek Delgaudio
August – Holidayyyyy
Pick a book that takes you away to another place. Read it and relax: The Ghost Machine by James Lovegrove
September – Back to School
Pick a book with some link to education. Dark Academia; dangerous school, etc.: The Days of Tao by Wesley Chu (I had a hard time finding something for this prompt, and was so happy when I remembered this started at a summer class)
October – Booooo and Eeek
Read a horror or dark themed tale (crime counts too!) you want to be unsettled!: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
November – Short and Sweet
Read three novellas: I only had one novella (and forgot to read it), so I technically failed this. But I did accomplish the Stretch Goal.
Stretch Goal – read the 11th book from the beginning or end of your TBR pile: Less by Sean Greer
December – Happy Endings
Have you been holding back the finale of a series? Now time to see where it ends.: I accidentally read the book I’d slotted for this during the 20 Books of Summer—whoops! (The Deepest Grave by Harry Bingham). Thankfully (not for my TBR, but for the sake of this challenge), I had another series ending that I could read: Sacrifices by Jamie Schultz

(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)

December 2022 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By

On January 2, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

Well, this was a pretty good way to wrap up 2022—I feel pretty productive. I completed 33 titles (that includes a short story, a quick collection of flash fiction, 2 books that I’ve been working on for months, and 3 children’s books—which helped that number) and 8,694+ pages (or the equivalent). My average rating for the month was 3.6 stars, which I won’t complain about. This is likely my best month ever for non-review(ish) posts, if not ever, at least for this year. A lot of books finished, a good rating average, and a lot of things written. Color me pleased as punch.

Here’s what happened here in December.

Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Bookish People Baby Dragon's Big Sneeze The Legend of the Christmas Witch
2 1/2 Stars 3.5 Stars 3 Stars
No Plan B Low Anthropology Stone Cold
3 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars
The Spare Man Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing Radio Radio
4 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars
Junkyard War Her Name is Knight Have I Told You This Already?
3.5 Stars 3.5 Stars 3.5 Stars
Vinyl Resting Place The Twist of a Knife Sacrifices
3 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
The Return of the Christmas Witch 12 Things God Can't Do Secrets Typed in Blood
3 Stars 4 Stars 3.5 Stars
Pet Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries</a Midnight Blue-Light Special
3 Stars 4 Stars 4 Stars
Everything's Changing In the Fullness of Time The Hope of Life After Death
3.5 Stars 5 Stars 3 Stars
Faith & Life Yes, Chef Killer Story
5 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars
Scattered Showers Your Perfect Year The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe
3.5 Stars 2 Stars 4 Stars
Early Grave The Princess Beard E.B. White on Dogs
4 Stars 3.5 Stars 4 Stars

Ratings

5 Stars 2 2 1/2 Stars 1
4 1/2 Stars 0 2 Stars 1
4 Stars 12 1 1/2 Stars 0
3.5 Stars 8 1 Star 0
3 Stars 9
Average = 3.6

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

Audio E-book Physical Goodreads
Want-to-Read
End of
2021		 9 45 42 144
1st of the
Month		 7 50 42 148
Added 2 0 8 0
Read/
Listened		 3 2 8 5
Current Total 5 43 37 143

(yes, the math doesn’t work—like it didn’t last month—but I did a year-end audit, and had to tweak a couple of things (not sure how they got messed up in the first place. Time to fire some of my staff again. The totals are right now.)

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 25
Self-/Independent Published: 8

Genre This Month Year to Date
Children’s 1 (3%) 5 (2%)
Fantasy 6 (18%) 32 (10%)
General Fiction/ Literature 5 (15%) 24 (8%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 9 (27%) 114 (37%)
Non-Fiction 4 (12%) 29 (9%)
Science Fiction 1 (3%) 28 (9%)
Theology/ Christian Living 5 (15%) 45 (15%)
Urban Fantasy 2 (6%) 34 (11%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) 0 (0%) 2 (1%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

December Calendar

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